PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) says it has been on the health frontlines in Haiti, caring for the violence-wracked, displaced population.
According to PAHO, since February 29, Haiti has faced “an intensified security crisis, marking a new stage in the violence already impacting a struggling healthcare system, and further complicating access to care for millions of Haitians.
“As is often the case, the crisis has hit the country’s most vulnerable the hardest, including those living in one of the 84 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) sites of the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, home to around 86,040 people,” PAHO said.
Over the past month, PAHO said it has been able to regain access to those living in 22 of the sites, where the organization has worked since 2022 to support local health authorities.
At 67, Marie Yliane, a former street seller, lives in the Colbert Lochard site for displaced persons, a public school that is now home to almost 2500 people.
Originally from the Carrefour-Feuille neighborhood, PAHO said Yliane, like many of her neighbors, had to flee last August in the face of the advance of a local gang.
“I never had high blood pressure before the current crisis,” she told PAHO. “But the sounds of gunfire echo in my head. You’re always forced to flee without knowing where to go.
“The mobile clinic helped me a lot today,” she added. “I was feeling unwell and as almost all the hospitals are closed, a friend advised me to go. The doctors discovered that my symptoms: insomnia, headaches, fatigue are due to high blood pressure. I received medication and thanked God for this care in these chaotic times.”
After having exhausted his savings on hospital bills following his injury, John, 34 (last name withheld), according to PAHO, visited the mobile clinic for a free consultation and treatment.
“Before the crisis, I had a store and a motorcycle,” John, also from Carrefour-Feuille, said. “But I lost everything when I got shot in the foot by a stray bullet. “Bandits invaded my neighborhood, and I was hit by the bullet while trying to escape”.
PAHO said Sabrina, 28 (last name also withheld), visited the clinic due to concern about the mental health of her two young children.
“One of my children is traumatized by the sound of automatic weapons and can’t stand them,” she said. “I have to protect him and take him to safety when there is a shooting.”
Reactivated since mid-March, PAHO said the mobile clinics have already carried out more than 1000 health consultations in several sites in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.
“They are crucial in facilitating access to health care for displaced populations,” PAHO said.
Staffed by six doctors, 10 auxiliary nurses, two midwives, three psychologists and a dozen psychosocial and community health workers, PAHO said the mobile clinics provide general medicine services, as well as sexual and reproductive health, and psychosocial consultations.
Community health workers also utilize the clinics to organize awareness raising activities, said PAHO, adding that it supports the initiative through the provision of logistical and technical support, as well as through the supply of medical products.
“As soon as we were able to return to the sites, our priority was to distribute hygiene and sanitation products to people who had not received assistance for several days”, said Dr. Jean-Gilbert Ndong, coordinator of the PAHO response in IDP sites.
Overcrowded and housed in unsuitable structures, PAHO said the IDP sites face considerable challenges, including a lack of access to drinking water and sanitation.
It said these conditions create a breeding ground for the deterioration of residents’ health and the potential development of epidemics.
In addition to the mobile clinics, PAHO said surveillance activities have also been relaunched, thanks to the work of surveillance and response teams deployed to each camp.
PAHO said the aim of this surveillance is to prevent the outbreak of diseases such as cholera, which has reappeared in the country since October 2022.
In addition to its support to the health authorities of the Ouest Department for displaced populations, PAHO said it has supported the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) since the beginning of the crisis through logistical support to public hospitals and other institutions that continue to provide health care in “a complicated security environment.”
PAHO said it has also provided several tons of medical supplies to various facilities, including the Hôpital Universitaire la Paix and the Médecins Sans Frontières hospital, which treat most of seriously injured patients.
Additionally, PAHO has assisted the National Blood Transfusion Program through the donation of supplies and reagents, and the National Ambulance Center to ensure the continuity of ambulance care and the transport of injured people, through the supply of fuel.
PAHO said it is also supporting three public hospitals in the field of maternal health, primarily by increasing access by reducing the financial barriers to caesarean deliveries for women requiring this procedure.
